How Large Growers Such as Metrolina Approach Technology Adoption
January 11, 2024 Metrolina Greenhouses is widely considered to be an industry leader not just in adopting new greenhouse technology, but in doing so for the right reasons. Co-CEO Art Van Wingerden says there are three factors the company considers when investing in technology: how it can improve consistency in planting and growing, how it contributes to labor savings and efficiency when adding production space, and whether the operation can truly measure efficiency and set standards for the team.
Art’s brother and co-CEO Abe Van Wingerden puts it another way.
“When people do jobs they hate to do, they quit. So we want to eliminate the jobs people hate to do,” he says. “That’s how we’ve been able to pay our team more per hour and expand our workforce.”
Consistency is another huge factor, Abe says.
“We were one of the first growers to use biomass boilers. When gas prices are high, we look like geniuses, and when they drop, not so much,” he says. “But over the past 15 years, it’s worked out very well for us because the gas market ebbs and flows.”
Metrolina is considered to be an early adopter of new technology, but the operation’s approach is well thought out.
“We do some traditional return on investment (ROI) analysis, but we don’t let that take us over the cliff. We also do some very instinctive things, but we don’t let that take us over the cliff either,” Abe says. “It takes the right balance, and an understanding of when automation or robotics may not actually be the right fit because people can do the job just as well.”
When it comes to figuring out what’s best for you and your greenhouse, Art says you need to get out of your greenhouse and see what other growers and even other industries are doing.
“Growers in Europe may operate a bit differently because they typically grow one item in one size,” Art says. “But because they grow this way, they’ve had to figure out how to get the most out of their team. We want to take the same approach to make it easier for our team to like what they do.”
What about truly emerging technology such as artificial intelligence? Abe says its main value lies in the potential for predictive analytics, or taking 10 years’ worth of data that gives you a solution, so you don’t have to guess each year.
“It’s not cool or sexy like a new transplanter, but it’s still a huge part of what we do, both in measuring data from our sales and in managing the repetitive tasks in the greenhouse for your team,” Abe says. “It allows us to spend more time focusing on how to become more innovative, which is hard to do when you’re worried about your day-to-day job.”
Art notes that about 95% of the daily work at Metrolina is rinse and repeat, or doing the same tasks over and over.
“We want to identify those tasks that are necessary but that people don’t like doing, and figure out a way to automate them,” he says.
Looking ahead, Art says the path to innovation lies in communication between growers and vendors.
“If we’re not talking to our vendors, or if they’re not talking to us and are instead trying to come up with things on their own, they are not going to come up with the right idea,” Art says. “They’re just going to show you what they think is the next big idea, instead of us showing them. Innovation starts with us telling our suppliers what we need.”
Abe says no machine works perfectly for every grower, and the best vendors are the ones that understand that.
“When someone tries to tell us their technology works the same for both big and small growers, I tell them that’s only true if it can be adapted for that big or small grower,” Abe says.
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